KNM: Volume 10 Chapter 2

KNM: Volume 10 Chapter 2

This chapter was brought to you by AnmesicCat, and StellarAshes.

Direct Knight

Jasmine held the little guy in her hand while feeling helpless and distressed. Ever since the day Liola had his Knight examination, Baolilong had been curling its little body into a ball. It spent most of its time curled up next to the door, and it would occasionally peek outside, waiting for a certain someone to arrive. This would continue until the night, and the little figure would walk sadly with its head lowered, back to Jasmine’s room, and then continue to curl up in a ball on the bed, quietly letting its tears flow on the sheets.

Jasmine’s heart ached in seeing the situation but, there was nothing she could do. This all started on the day of the Knight examination…

Baolilong transformed into a large dragon and carried Liola to kick-off the test against Cappuccino and Little Fireball. Although Liola’s strength had far surpassed Cappuccino, things were a different when Little Fireball came into the picture. The tacit cooperation between Cappuccino and Little Fireball had unexpectedly caused Liola and Baolilong some struggles.

Because Liola had been too strong, they had always been able to defeat their opponents with Liola’s strength alone, so Baolilong’s mission was, at most, carry Liola into the sky. Therefore, their combat coordination was practically non-existent. This had never hurt them much before, but now during aerial combat, and running into Cappuccino and Little Fireball, who had countless battle experiences, their lack of coordination was a fatal weakness.

During one of the confrontations, not only did Baolilong’s lightning not able to put a scathe on Cappuccino’s dragon, Little Fireball, it was burnt by it. Baolilong fell to the ground, and returned to its human shape, hoping to run back into papa’s arms to cry, but it was tossed away.

“Useless thing, scat!”

The papa in Baolilong’s heart was looking at it with emotionless eyes, and spoke with a cold tone.

“Papa, papa…” Baolilong cried as if it had been maligned. Every time it had done something wrong, as long as it cried, Liola would always walk over it quietly and carry it in his arms.

Liola did indeed walk over, but instead of carrying Baolilong, he swept with his feet, kicking the little figure out of the arena, so it wouldn’t obstruct him in his test.

“What are you doing?!” Jasmine and Lanski, who had been watching from the side-lines, screamed in unison, then ran towards Baolilong.

Baolilong struggled to sit up, stared at its papa, who was still in the arena, as thought it had no idea what happened. Tears still stained its cheek, but Baolilong didn’t dare to bawl now. Instead, it said timidly, “Papa?”

Liola slowly turned his head, and then said coldly, “You should call me ‘Master’.”

Hearing Liola’s cold tone of voice, Baolilong pouted and started crying. It still didn’t dare to bawl, so it sobbed and said desperately, “Don’t want master; papa is papa…”

Practically at the same time, Liola’s figure warped, and suddenly appeared in front of Baolilong, with his left hand raised high.

“Stop!” Noticing he was about to do something, Lanski rushed up to protect Baolilong.

A crisp slap sound echoed in the arena, and Lanski practically flew off. When she turned her head around, half of her face swelled, with blood oozing out the side of her mouth. She tried to shake off the dizziness, but she couldn’t believe such a heavy slap was originally aimed at Baolilong.

“Liola!” Jasmine yelled angrily, and she reached out her hand to slap Liola, but instead, Liola grabbed ahold of her wrist.

Liola’s emotionless cold eyes stared back at her, and slowly bent her wrist backwards. Jasmine’s face suddenly turned pale, because she couldn’t believe the man in front of her would hurt her like this.

Liola slowly let go of Jasmine’s arms, but she was already in so much pain that cold sweat ran down her back, however, didn’t dare to scream, so she gritted her teeth. She raised her head, trying to gaze into the eyes of man in front of her. Those pair of silver eyes that had once moved her, was now filled with a piercing cold, and his tone was even more heartless,

“Unless you don’t want to live anymore, never, ever, attack me.”

* * *

Remembering what Liola had said, Jasmine tightened her grasp on Baolilong. The little guy in her arms refused to adjust, and stubbornly called Liola “papa” rather than “master”. Liola’s response was even simpler: just a word, “Scat”.

This was the result of Lanski and Cappuccino desperately stood in front of Baolilong. Otherwise Li… that man, might not have even said a word, but gave it the knuckle treatment, instead. Jasmine pouted.

“Oh, no.” Jasmine felt bad. She put her face against Baolilong’s head, and kissed its hair, while comforting it, “Liola would never abandon you. He cares deeply about you, even though he never says it, but he really does, right?’

Baolilong cried, and then opened its big eyes to look at Jasmine, while answering assuredly, “Papa cares about Baolilong the most! He would touch Baolilong’s head every time. If Baolilong did something wrong, crying would immediately stop papa from being angry, and he would even hug Baolilong.”

“Yes, I know. Even though he doesn’t speak much, and sometimes he even looks cold, but he is truly good to you. He is a gentle and good father.” Jasmine said with a hoarse voice. She wasn’t sure if she was telling those words to Baolilong or herself.

Baolilong suddenly began to struggle, and then jumped out of Jasmine’s arms. It began to move its little feet towards the door.

“No, did you forget? If you aren’t willing to call him ‘master’, he will beat you.” Jasmine advised painstakingly, while holding her arms even tighter, fearing that it would begin to struggle once more.

Jasmine buried her face into Baolilong’s white hair, and her voice was incomparably miserable, “Liola wouldn’t beat you, he really wouldn’t. Then… who exactly is that man? Why does he have Liola’s silver eyes, appearance, memory, but he’s definitely not him.”

Baolilong seemed to have noticed the sadness of the person behind it. It stopped struggling, and clumsily turned around. It patted Jasmine’s head, then sincerely comforted, “Jasmine, don’t cry…”

“Baolilong…” Jasmine hugged Baolilong’s little body tightly. She could no longer hold back her tears, “I’m scared, scared that Liola may never change back. If he stays like this forever, what do we do?”

Baolilong tilted its head, and its puffed cheek looked like it was thinking hard, but in a few seconds, Baolilong seemed to have given up; it said naturally, “Baolilong doesn’t know, but Kaiser knows. Baolilong waits for Kaiser.”

“Kaiser…” Jasmine raised her head. Although teardrops marked her face, her eyes were filled with hope, “Right, his companions would never abandon Liola. Hmm, I think I know what I can do: I should try to find a way to contact Kaiser.”

(“Leave It to Kaiser Disease” had proved, through its symptoms, it was a contagious disease that could be spread among humans and dragons, and its epidemic continued to spread…)

* * *

“Little Fireball, I need to ask you a serious question.” Ever since that day, Cappuccino had been bored. There were only a handful of times when he was serious, but now, he was solemnly asking his own dragon a question.

“No.” Little Fireball denied it without a second thought.

“Hey… I haven’t even asked the question I wanted to ask?”

Little Fireball shrugged, and apologized without being sorry in the slightest, “Sorry, it’s a habit I’ve developed from spending a long time with you. Continue, then.”

Cappuccino looked afar, and he had the same look on his face as the first time he went to challenge a Dragon alone. When he saw the Dragon’s strong body, he fell into a trance, then into another trance, and finally asked the person next to him, “My mission is to defeat this Dragon? You’re joking. Is today April Fools, and you’re tricking me? Maybe my mission is just to take a picture of the Dragon?”

But now, Cappuccino was more than willing to wrestle barehanded with three giant Dragons than… to speak with his own brother, who was a tenth the height of a dragon. Unfortunately, this the mission his baby sister gave him: to chat with Liola, and to find out what exactly was wrong.

Seeing Liola walked while emitting a freezing presence, and thereby causing a whole road to be filled with Knight Ice statues, Cappuccino seriously thought wrestling with three Dragons wouldn’t be so bad. He took a deep breath and said, “Actually…”

“Today isn’t April Fools.” Little Fireball rudely interrupted.

“Or perhaps…”

“Oh, Princess Lanski wouldn’t want a picture.” Little Fireball glanced in disdain at his own Prince.

Cappuccino’s lips trembled, and gestured at the magnificent Knight ice statues, then said painfully, “L-Little Fireball, I’m going to freeze to death.”

Hearing this, Cappuccino blinked, as though he realized something. He examined Little Fireball, “You actually admitted you’re a reptile? Don’t tell me you… are also afraid of my little brother? To the point you’re willing to admit you’re a reptile?”

Little Fireball glanced at the Fourth Prince from the distance, then decided right on the spot to use a tone that infuriated Cappuccino and admitted, “Yup, master, I have scales, so no matter how you categorize me, I belong in the reptile family. Even though you flunked Biology — and just about everything else for that matter — you should at least know that cold blooded animals couldn’t live in a too cold or too hot of a climate, right? So… you have to chat with the Fourth Prince by yourself.”

“I… I am a reptile, too!” Cappuccino held his fist, and announced loudly and shamelessly.

“You’re a mammal.” Little Fireball glanced at his master. Clearly, even a Dragon learnt Biology better than Cappuccino.

“I can’t breastfeed! So how could I be a mammal, but…” Cappuccino crouched, got on all four and crawled a bit. He then raised his head and said triumphantly, “Look, I can crawl; therefore, I must be a reptile!”

But as soon as he raised his head, Cappuccino suddenly realized, while he was crawling on the ground, Little Fireball had actually backed up a dozen meters away, and continuously spitted out fireballs to warm his hands, while looking at his own Prince with sympathy.

“Why is it so cold?” Cappuccino felt the hair on his back standing up. Unless….

He turned his head only to find a pair of cold silver eyes staring at him. Cappuccino screamed on top of his lungs, “Ah~~~ I’m dead! I’m dead! I’m going to freeze to death!”

“Sovereign brother, Father asked me to find you, so you could take me to pick some Knights.” Liola stated coldly, as if he didn’t hear Cappuccino scream, nor did he see the strange sights of his own brother crawling around on the ground.

“Pick Knights?” Cappuccino blinked, he then got up from all fours and stood in his two feet. He asked skeptically, “Why all the trouble? You’re already the successor, does it really matter if you pick some or not?”

“This is father’s command.” Liola answered as such.

Cappuccino paused a moment. He didn’t understand the intent of his father’s command, but he sighed. Why would he bother guessing? No matter what his intent was, could he really disobey it?

“Let’s go. At this time, the Knights should still be practicing, so we will definitely find them on the training grounds.” Cappuccino shrugged, thinking this was also a chance for him to see if Blood Wolf was there. Having traveled the world, Blood Wolf had always been more knowledgeable, and perhaps he could immediately determine what the Dragon Emperor had done to Liola.

Thinking this, Cappuccino’s spirits had lifted and began to walk almost impatiently, to take his brother towards the training grounds. On the way, he didn’t forget his sister’s orders, and he kept talking.

“I wonder what Kaiser and others are doing right now? They might even be confronting the Black Dragon King right now, and that would be bad. Rumor has it, there are countless Lesser Dragons under his control, and even Qiusi couldn’t formulate a plan… right, you still remember Kaiser and others, right? ” Cappuccino pretended to be relaxed, and asked casually.

“… Yes.” Liola was quiet for a while, but still answered.

What was up with the hesitation? Perhaps there’s hope… Cappuccino tried to suppress the excitement in his mind. He asked carelessly, “Where did Kaiser, Daylight, and you disappeared to? I don’t think you went to the Commerce Alliance. I heard Purity and Meinan looked for you non-stop for more than a year, and the only place they didn’t look was the Dragon Continent.”

Liola stopped, and Cappuccino stopped with him, and looked with anticipation. Liola said coldly, “Don’t mention them. Father doesn’t like to hear about them.”

Hearing this, Cappuccino replied with a bit of disappointment, “Oh.” However, he thought that it was better he had gotten a response at all, which meant he still cared about his companions.

“Right.” Cappuccino suddenly thought of an actual question he actually wanted to ask. Seeing training grounds weren’t far away, he hurriedly asked, “Why did Father give you the title of Silver Moon?”

Without waiting for Liola’s answer, Cappuccino began to talk to himself and guessed, “Lancelot’s title is Paladin because he’s a Holy Knight, and he has always been honorable, so Father gave him that title, hoping him to be the idol for all the Holy Knights. Blood Wolf was the opposite. He is a Dark Knight, and his personality is quite weird, despite him being very strong. Father also gave him the title of Darkness. However, as for your ‘Silver Moon’, I don’t really understand it. ‘Silver’ makes a bit of sense, since your eyes are unique and they’re silver. ‘Moon’, on the other hand, is strange. I can’t fathom what ‘Silver Moon’ means.”

Cappuccino was just far too curious; to the point that even Liola’s frozen aura did not seem to damper his curiosity. He stared at his brother, hoping to get an answer, “Why exactly ‘Silver Moon’?”

Liola stopped. Because it was a question his sovereign brother had asked, he habitually thought it was something he should answer. Nevertheless, this question wasn’t so easily answered as it wasn’t a yes or no question, but Liola knew the answer to it.

Many memories pierced through Liola’s thoughts, and he said as if he were reciting, “Silver Moon, a name of my past, a name of an emotionless top Assassin who would always obey orders.”

Hearing this answer, Cappuccino’s pupils dilated. “Emotionless, always obey orders, top Assassin” …Are these really what their own father want his child to turn into? So when he gave Liola the title of Silver Moon, was his intention to turn Liola back into the original Assassin?

“Father, you are his and Susanna’s son…” Cappuccino’s face suddenly turned pale. When he saw Liola’s still expressionless eyes, Cappuccino’s heart panicked even more.

“Sovereign brother, the training ground?” Liola couldn’t understand why Cappuccino’s face turned pale, but all he wanted to do was carry out Father’s commands.

Cappuccino took a few deep breaths, and decided in his mind. For his brother, for Lanski, and even for the dead Susanna, he would do everything in his power to help his brother escape, from this place he should be calling home.

“Training ground is ahead. How many Knights will you be choosing?” Cappuccino began to walk forward again, while advising him, “The problem isn’t really with how many you choose. More importantly, you have to choose compatible ones, especially since you are the successor, so all the Knights must obey you. As long as you feel compatible with them, even their strength isn’t really an issue.”

With Cappuccino’s nagging, the two stepped into the training grounds. The Dragon Empire’s training ground wasn’t something that can be compared to those in Aklan Academy, since the majority of the Knights were Dragon Knights, and because the large size of Dragons, the training grounds were considerably larger. At a glance, one can see many giant circular arenas on top of the plains, and many Knights were dueling on top of them.

The training grounds were so large that they looked like track fields circling the arenas, and one could not judge the length of the fields around each. There were many Knights wearing armors standing in formations, running uniformly on those tracks.

What’s even more were Knights who were holding weapons, practicing how to pierce, stab, swing, etc. They all looked spirited, and their war cries pierced the skies.

Cappuccino and Liola stopped at the training grounds’ door. Technically speaking, the “door” was nothing more than an outpost made of stones, with guards standing on either side of it. As soon as the guards saw Cappuccino, they started smiling a bit indecently, as if to imply they had an idea of what Cappuccino usually did here. However, when they see Liola’s silver eyes, they obviously panicked a little, then formally saluted and yelled, “Greetings, Fourth Prince, Your Highness… and also Third Prince.”

“Hey…”

Cappuccino didn’t know where to hide his shame, but this was already better than he expected. Had he been alone, not only would the guards not salute to him, they might even start warning this Prince that training grounds forbid alcohol, picnic, flirting with female Knights, etc.

Liola returned the formality coldly, and then went in ahead. After all, he only asked Cappuccino to lead him to the training grounds. Since he was already here, there was no longer a need to follow Cappuccino.

When Liola walked into the training grounds, the two guards finally relaxed. They looked at Cappuccino, who pretended to be solemn, and the two began to chatter, “Why are they so different when they’re both Princes?”

Cappuccino pouted his mouth with dissatisfaction. Although one of the guards saw him, he didn’t seem to fear him, and began to shake his head, “Look! Look! That Fourth Prince, he is a successor after all. He doesn’t even need to be angry to appear imposing, but look at our Third Prince… sigh!” The guard sighed exaggeratedly.

“Oh, our Third Prince, he doesn’t seem imposing even if he’s angry.” Another guard knocked his head as though he was vexed by something. A moment later, they both burst into laughter.

“Hey! You two, at least when I’m here for a picnic, I did bring you two some drumsticks. Do you really have to make fun of me?” Cappuccino protested loudly.

“Right, right.” The guard nodded, then added, “Afterwards, when Second Prince came and saw the picnic baskets on the ground, who yelled, ‘I didn’t come here for picnic! It was the guards who ate it. Look, there’s still oil on their lips, and there are chicken bones on the ground’?”

The guards refrained from laughing while they saw this unscrupulous Prince walk into the training grounds.

As soon as Cappuccino walked into the training grounds, he saw the trail of ice statues Liola left behind. Cappuccino thought it strange. In under normal circumstances, the Knights training in the training grounds could ignore inspecting Royal Members or High Ranking Knights, as this was an order from the Dragon Emperor, to prevent interference on the Knight’s training. However, this order clearly was completely useless in Liola’s presence.

“Even without having to salute, such a cold creature would cause their skins to freeze, even if his eyes didn’t land on him.” Cappuccino signed, not knowing whether this was evidence of the cruel nature of his brother, his qualifications to be a King, or perhaps even the mercilessness required to be a King?

Seeing Liola getting further and further away, Cappuccino panickedly jogged up to his brother. The Knights’ responses were also quite strange: when Fourth Prince walked by, everyone froze on the spot, but when the Third Prince yelled, “Brother, wait for me,” and then jogged by, everyone felt a warm breeze pass by and defrosted them. The Knights seemed to smile helplessly, shaking their heads at this indecent Prince.

Cappuccino caught up to Liola, and secretly observed him. He noticed his brother was continually walking forward emotionlessly, nor did he look at the Knights around him. Cappuccino scratched his head; how would he possibly find a suitable Knight like this?

He knew suitable Knights weren’t an easy thing to find. Rumors had it, when their eldest brother was still a Knight, before he became a fortune teller, he only had two Knights following him, and they were both his friends growing up. Second brother Latte… Cappuccino frowned upon this brother of his. He had his own army of Knights, but he only paid attention to Lancelot and ignored all his other Knights.

As for himself, Cappuccino scratched his face; he was on good terms with most of the Knights. However, the most loyal one was probably none other than Blood Wolf. That guy and him were practically… in others words, one was an indecent Prince, and the other was an indecent Knight; together their indecency endangered the world… Wait, how could he even include that last thought from those guards?!

Why wasn’t there a good example for his brother to follow? Cappuccino bitterly thought about the reality of it all. He couldn’t use himself as a role model, right? Could one… below freezing Prince plus one below freezing Knight end up creating a new ice age, and freeze the rest of the Dragon Empire’s reptiles to death?

Cappuccino awoke from his daze, realizing his brother had gotten far again; he hurriedly caught up, and then asked, “Brother, what kind of Knight are you looking for?”

Liola stopped, and his eyes glanced across the Knights, as if freezing rays had been swirled by. The sound of things freezing could be heard continuously. He went silent, and continued to walk forward.

Seeing this, three black lines fell down Cappuccino’s forehead. He laughed bitterly, “Looks like we’ll be looking for the Knight who doesn’t freeze…”

Seeing Liola walking away, and his quick footsteps seemed to indicate his intention to walk a full circle around the training ground, Cappuccino sighed at his labored life, then followed him.

“You… are Silver Mask?”

A hesitating voice asked. Liola stopped quickly, so fast that Cappuccino almost couldn’t brake in time and rear-ended him. Liola turned his head, looking at the person who spoke. It was a Dark Knight. Liola examined the person: he had deep purple hair and black eyes, and somewhat cold expressions… he looked familiar, but that was it.

“Do you know this Knight?” Cappuccino asked curiously.

Liola’s mind drew blank. He didn’t know who it was, but since this person called him Silver Mask, it should be someone who knew him.

The purple-haired Knight seemed to have guessed what was going on, and he said directly, “I’m Yizhou.”

‘He even said his name, so now you should know who he is, right?’ Cappuccino looked back at Liola with hope, but the latter, regardless of whether he recognized him, remained emotionless. Not being able to judge whether Liola recognized the man, Cappuccino had no choice but to ask again, “Do you know him?”

“…” Liola continued to remain silent. It seemed like, regardless of whether he was Silver Moon or Liola, his habit of forgetting would never change.

Cappuccino scratched his face. His brother had probably forgotten the man completely. He shrugged at the Knight, “Never Mind whether he knew you before, he forgot you now. Describe how you knew him, and perhaps he would remember.”

Yizhou looked at Liola strangely, as if he couldn’t believe how much Liola had forgotten. He reminded Liola, “I have a twin brother, his name is Yiyu, and he’s a Sorcerer.”

“Violet Academy.” With such a reminder, Liola finally remembered.

Yizhou nodded, and Liola didn’t say anything else. The two remained quiet, and they looked remarkably similar. The only difference was the degree to which they were frozen. At least Yizhou was within the tolerance of a normal person, while Liola was the absolute zero, who was practically holding a sign that says, “Don’t get close, or else you have to be responsible for your own safety”.

Yizhou glanced at Cappuccino, as if he was thinking about how he should answer. He finally nodded, and rigidly thanked him, “Thank you, Third Prince, for your compliments.”

“Hahaha, no problem… hahaha…” Cappuccino laughed, but the two people in front of him sank into silence again, which made his laugh more and more awkward. He cursed in his mind, thinking that he jinxed it, and now there really was an icy Knight. No! He could never let his brother be matched up with this Knight; otherwise even Little Fireball couldn’t defrost him!

“Brother, I say, let’s go find your Direct Knight. I know many talented Knights…” Cappuccino thought to himself, they have to at least find a Knight with a burning passion, so he could at least bring the temperature around his brother back to humanly tolerable levels.

“He will do.”

Who would have known Liola would point his finger at Yizhou, who was standing in front of him, completely stupefying Cappuccino.

“Why pick me?” Yizhou was even more shocked than Cappuccino, and he was also confused. Anyone could see his situation with the Fourth Prince was terrible. In addition, they used to enemies; so theoretically, Liola should have never picked him. In fact, in the silence just now, Yizhou had thought of the possibility of being kicked out of the Dragon Empire for angering Liola in the past.

Instead, he ended up being a Knight working under Liola, which would make him the successor’s Direct Knight, and also the future Dragon Emperor’s Direct Knight. This was practically the highest honor among Knights.

Liola glanced at him, and said, “You’re very quiet.” Since he had chosen a Knight, he had also finished his Father’s order. Liola walked away without turning his head and, towards the exit to the training grounds, without giving the Knight he had just chosen any instructions.

Yizhou, who had won the highest honor for Knights by being “quiet”, was now even quieter. He didn’t know if he should be happy or…

Cappuccino, on the other hand, began to panic, and he yelled loudly, “Wait, brother, let’s pick a few more. You want quiet ones, no problem, I know many mute Knights, and even if they aren’t, I’ll beat him until they are…”

Liola completely ignored his brother, and continued his quick footsteps toward the exit. Cappuccino dropped his shoulder in a depressed manner. He covered his face with infinite sadness, “My God, my God. Two frozen guys were put together. My spring, summer, and autumn will now all be gone. Does it mean the only thing left is a never-ending winter?”

“Don’t worry, master, I’m coming!” Little Fireball, in his small Dragon form, used all of its power, shooting out a long stream of fire, then asked while trying to catch his breath, “Are you melted now?”

A human-shaped charcoal spit out some black smoke, and then fell to the ground.